Madame rf« Slael's. Ten Veare Exile. 



654 



is incessantly retuning in this unin- 

 ventive nature ; even the wuut of stones 

 might be almost regretted, so much is 

 the eye sometimes fatigued with meet- 

 ing neither hill nor valley, and to be 

 always making progress without en- 

 countering new objects. The rivers 

 relieve the imagination from this fa- 

 tigue; the priests, therefore, bestow 

 their benedictions on these rivers. 

 The emperor, empress, and the whole 

 court attend the ceremony of the bene- 

 diction of the Neva, at the moment of 

 the severest cold of winter. It is said 

 that Wladimir, at the commencement 

 of the eleventh century', declared, that 

 all the waters of the Borysthenes were 

 holy, and that plunging in them was 

 sufficient to make a man a Christian ; 

 the baptism of the Greeks being per- 

 formed by immersion, millions of men 

 went into this river to abjure their 

 idolatry. It was this same Wladimir 

 who sent deputies to different countries, 

 to learn which of all the. religions it 

 best suited him to adopt; he decided 

 for the Greek ritual, on account of the 



£omp of its ceremonies. Perhaps also 

 e preferred it for more important rea- 

 sons ; in ftvct the Greek faith by ex- 

 cluding the papal power, gives the so- 

 Tereign of Russia the spiritual and 

 temporal power united. 



THE GREEK RELIGION. 



The Greek religion is necessarily less 

 intolerant than the Roman Catholic ; 

 for being itself reproached as a schism, 

 it can hardly complain of heretics ; all 

 religions therefore are admitted into 

 Russia, and from the borders of the 

 Don to those of the Neva, the fraternity 

 of country unites men, even though 

 their theological opinions may separate 

 them. The Greek priests are allowed 

 to many, and scarcely any gentleman 

 embraces this profession: it follows 

 that the clei^y has very little political 

 ascendancy ; it acts upon the people, 

 but it is very submissive to the em- 

 peror. 



The ceremonies of the Greek worship 

 are at leafrt as beautiful as those of the 

 catholics; the churcli music is hea- 

 venly ; every thing in this worship 

 leads to meditation ; it has something 

 of poeti-y and feeling about it, but it 

 appears better adapted to captivate the 

 imagination than to regulate the con- 

 duct. When the priest comes out of 

 the sanctuary, in wliich he remains 

 shut up while he communicates, 5'ou 

 trould say that you sajv the gates of 

 Jight opening ; the cloud of incense 



which sunounds him, the gui4 and 

 silver, and precious stones, which glit- 

 ter on his robes and in the church, 

 seem to come from countries where the 

 sun is an object of adoration. -The 

 devout sentiments whicli arp. inspired 

 by gothic architecture in Germany, 

 France, and England, cannot beat all 

 compared with the effect of the Greek 

 churches ; they rather remind us of tlie 

 minarets of the Turivs and Arabs than 

 of our churches. As little must we 

 expect to find, as in Italy, the i^,!eu- 

 dor of the fine arts ; their most re- 

 markable ornaments are virgins and 

 saints crowned with rubie,s and dia- 

 monds. Magnificence is the charac- 

 ter of every tiling one sees in Ru.^sia; 

 neither the genius of man nor the gifts 

 of nature constitute its beauties. 



The ceremonies of mairiage, of bap- 

 tism, and of burial, are noble and af- 

 fecting ; we find in them some ancient 

 customs of Grecian idolatry, but only 

 those which, having no connection with 

 doctrine, can add to the impression of 

 the three great scenes of life, birth, 

 marriage, and death. The Ru.ssian 

 peasants still continue' the custom of 

 addressing the dead previous to a final 

 separation from his remains. ^Vhy is 

 it, say they, that thou liast abandoned 

 us ? Wert thou then unhappy, on this 

 earth ? Was not thy wife lajr and 

 good? Why therefore hast thou left 

 her ? The dead replies not, but the 

 value of existence is thus proclaimed 

 in the presence of those who still pre- 

 serve it. . 



ROAD PROM KIOVV TO ]>IO§C0W. 



About nine hundred versts still se- 

 parated Kiow from Moscow. My Rus- 

 sian coachman drove me along lik<? 

 lightning, singing airs, the words of 

 whicli I was told were compliments »nd 

 encouragements to their horses, " Go 

 along," they said, " my friends : we 

 know one another : go quick." I liave 

 as yet seen nothing at all barbarmis.in 

 this people ; on the contraiy, their 

 forms iiave an elegance and softness 

 about them which you find no where 

 else. Never does a Russian coachman 

 pass a female, of whatever age or rank 

 she may be, -witLiout saluting her, and 

 the female reiurnsit by an inclination of 

 the head which is always noble and 

 graceful. An bid man who could not 

 make himself understood by me, point- 

 ed to the earth, and then to the heaven, 

 to signify to me, that the oi^e would 

 shortly he to him the road to the other. 

 J. knaw very well that the shocking 

 barbaiities 



